Educational Science

'Baby quasars' spotted by James Webb telescope could transform our understanding of monster black holes

A cluster of faint, red dots lurking in the farthest reaches of the universe could change our understanding of how supermassive black holes (SMBHs) form. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) coincidentally spotted the specks, which astronomers say are actually baby quasars, while studying an unrelated faraway quasar called J1148+5251....

At Least 9 Pregnant Women in US Infected with Zika: CDC

Nine pregnant women in the U.S. have now been confirmed to have had Zika virus infections that they contracted through travel to places where the virus is spreading, U.S. health officials said today. Separate from those cases, researchers have confirmed that six women in the U.S. have contracted the virus...

New tests now officially confirm what doctors have long suspected: The Zika virus can cross the placental barrier in a pregnant woman and enter the amniotic fluid, the protective fluid that surrounds a developing fetus within the womb. However, the findings do not show that the Zika virus causes microcephaly,...

Zika Virus Linked to Stillbirth

A woman in Brazil who became infected with the Zika virus gave birth to a stillborn baby, and large parts of the infant's brain were missing, according to a new report. Moreover, the fetus had damage to tissues outside of the central nervous system, the researchers said. For example, the...

Astronomers find heaviest black hole pair in the universe, and they've been trapped in an endless duel for 3 billion years

Astronomers have spotted the heaviest black hole pair ever seen — a duo weighing the equivalent of 28 billion suns. The black holes' combined mass is so great that they refuse to collide and merge. The black hole binary, embedded inside the fossil galaxy B2 0402+379, consists of two enormous...

Zika Virus Linked with Man's Brain Infection, Coma

An elderly French man who caught the Zika virus while on vacation developed a brain infection that put him in a temporary coma, according to a new report of the case. The 81-year-old man had been healthy before he went on a cruise to the South Pacific — one of...

Einstein's predictions mean rare 'gravitational lasers' could exist throughout the universe, new paper claims

Among his many theoretical insights, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of two phenomena in our universe that have since been proved: gravitational waves and the stimulated emission of radiation. New research has found that these effects can sometimes combine into rare and exotic gravitational lasers — possibly leading to a...

Zika Virus: Microcephaly May Be 'Tip of the Iceberg' for Infant Problems

Pregnant women who become infected with Zika virus may be at risk for not only having a child with microcephaly, but also having a fetus with other serious health issues, including problems with the nervous system and even fetal death, according to a new study from Brazil. The study —...

New Zika Study Finds Grave Outcomes for Some Pregnant Women

Some pregnant women with Zika virus tend not to fare well, and neither do their fetuses, a new study finds. Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that can also be transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse. Because of concerns that the disease may increase the risk of microcephaly (small brain size) and...

Are Genetic Weapons the Best Tools to Fight Zika Virus? (Op-Ed)

David O'Brochta is a professor in the Department of Entomology at the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research at the University of Maryland - College Park. He studies genetic technologies for use in insects and the application of those technologies to explore the physiology and genetics that make some mosquitoes...